Sham-e-Ali Nayeem first branched out into the music industry after publishing her poetry collection, City of Pearls, which highlights her griefs towards her hometown of Hyderabad, India. Moti Ka Sheher is a direct translation of her publication and a supplement of her poems surrounding anguish and remorse. The delivery of spacious electronica and repetitive trip-hop melodies accompanied by Nayeem’s soft-spoken yet translucent ballads provide an eye-opening atmosphere that calls attention to her cultural commentary.
“Place of Birth” starts off the album on a philosophical note. Nayeem incorporates a consistent, choppy bass beat and a set of eerily humming background vocals layered on top of her monotone-sounding lyrics that lures listeners into her world of thought. As she softly speaks, “A chasm / Forever rewriting itself / In my heart,” listeners can feel her grief seeping into their mind, body and soul. The song concludes with Nayeem and featured artist Gabriela Riley harmonizing in Portuguese to give the song a rousing finish.
“Strangers on a Train” follows up with a low, muffled electronic beat that gradually escalates into a sporadic melody that sounds like it materialized straight out of a Tron scene, moments before the drivers start their race. Throughout the track, her poetic lyrics tell a story of the estrangement between two strangers and the indifference that comes after the interaction is shortly forgotten, perfectly exemplified by the reflection of, “Strangers say ‘I care for you best’ / Because they have no reason to care.”
The album then transitions to “Before Bombing,” which is a poignant, fleeting song. The opening produces a deep bass sound that provokes feelings of preparation, which lead into the occasional looping of a warped electro-beat spliced together with a repetitive trip-hop melody. Her lyrics describe the diverse emotions, thoughts and aftereffects that result before and after a traumatic event. The application of, “The unfinished tea is still warm on the table / Faint-printed lips dry on the edge of glass,” incite feelings of sorrow and immense distress by illustrating a crystal-clear painting of the lonely glass on the table with no one being able to come back for it.
As the album progresses, Nayeem’s proclivity for tormented lyricism only becomes more apparent. The fourth song on the track, “Ledger” begins with a whooshing sonic sound in addition to the soft looping of cymbal taps and bell chimes. Later on, the sonic electronic beat rapidly begins to oscillate and generates feelings of an endless cycle. Nayeem’s poetic style fully grasps the issues she disputes in such an intense way. The stringing together and pacing of, “At the morgue during war is a ledger / Thick with soft pages worn / Someone maintains it with care,” emphasize the casualties during war as the sky is weeping for the fallen. The poetic rhyming of her lyrics absorb listeners’ minds allowing them to ponder on problems that occur in various countries everyday.
“All The Things We Never Say” opens with a light electronic humming before Nayeem launches into her dialogue. A few seconds later, another featured artist, Tough Gossamer enters with an eerily beautiful harmonization while increasingly growing louder. The electric tapping accentuates her message filled with regret and wonder with poetic phrases like, “A valley of unsent letters and deleted text messages.”
The latter half of the album, “Hypothetically Speaking,” “Goddesses and Doormats,” “Seeing Ourselves,” “Channeling” and “Meri Jaan,” incorporates more collaborations from aforementioned artists, Riley and Gossamer, along with fresh names like Adeeba Talukder and TreZure Empire. Throughout Moti Ka Shahar, Nayeem does an impeccable job with her compositions by creating a particular sense of ethereality and darkness that go hand-in-hand by telling the history and stories kindred to her home.
All of the 10 songs on this eye-opening, prodigious album convey Nayeem’s feelings of regret, but yearning to reform public opinions by using her platform to bring awareness to communities that have been neglected for far too long.
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